President Mamnoon attends SCO inaugural session

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 24 (APP): The 16th meeting of the Heads of the State Council of Shanghai Cooperation Organization started in the Uzbek capital on Friday with representatives of member and observer states in attendance.

President Mamnoon Hussain joined other world leaders at the session, which is being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayov and Kyrgyzstan President Almazbeg Atambayev.

The meeting will grant full membership to Pakistan and India in a session later by afternoon.

At present, the full members of SCO are China, Russian, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan whereas Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus, Mongolia have the observer status.